Of course they do, but let’s unpack that.

When people buy a new car who already have one, they generally do it because either 1. they think it will bring some material benefit over their old car, or 2. they want a new car simply for vanity reasons.

Looking at the PS5 Pro, there will absolutely be people who think “I want to upgrade to the Pro just for bragging rights” but I’m pretty sure the majority of consumers wil simply think “This doesn’t play any games my PS5 can’t already” and pass on it.

Not if they already have a PS5, though.

“Kramer, what’s going on in there?”

Like, why the hell wasn’t it before now already?

I had so many good times on forums back in the day.

The personal nature of them was great for being social and making friends, but it was also good for the quality of the content for and user behaviour too.

When everyone recognises you and remembers your past behaviour, people put effort into creating a good reputation for themselves and making quality posts. It’s like living in a small village versus living in a city.

The thought of being banned back then genuinely filled people with dread, because even if you could evade it (which many people couldn’t as VPNs were barely a thing) you’d lose your whole post history and personal connection with people, and users did cherish those things.

Kinda wild that you could patent a super basic mechanic that pretty much anyone could come up with

Not seen Nagato in a while

Why is “helicopter” commonly shortened to “helo” rather than “heli” ?

Even if the common advice is to avoid spoilers, I’m glad you found your own way to enjoy it :)

I’m sure I could play it again myself and still enjoy the atmosphere, even if the discoveries weren’t new. Or maybe it would be fun to watch a stream of someone else playing for the first time instead!

For real. It’s an amazing game that just can’t be the same again once you know all its secrets.

I bought it for two of my friends, and they both ended up hating it lol. I don’t blame them, but I think it’s very much to do with the mentality of how you approach the experience.

One friend just got plain stuck and gave up. The other found it frustrating that they were doing the same thing several times over, and just wanted to rush as quickly as they could to make progress.

Personally, I enjoyed the slow pace of discovery. I loved that feeling of being a true explorer, discoving facets of lost civilisation. Watching in melancholic awe as a world crumbled around me. Finding just a small piece of new information was always a joy, and made it feel worthwhile to get there, even if I’d done 90% of the journey before.

Slowly getting richer in a game where the only currency is knowledge.

Time to start a boycott movement against Black Ops 6 :)

My grandmother was into collecting thimbles, when she was still alive.

As a child, whenever I went away somewhere on a trip with my parents and we saw a souvenir thimble, I’d always want to get it for her.

Looking back as an adult, I’m quite sure now that she didn’t really care that much about the thimbles at all, especially towards the end. What she really cared about was the connection it created, and the relationship with her grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.

It’s nice to know what someone likes, and to think of them when you see it. And every time I saw thimbles I thought of her.

In a modern context I have a friend who likes frogs, and every time I see a random frog plush or weird frog toothbrush holder or whatever it is I always think of him and want to get it for him.

Fads change but I think the reason for having them stays the same. It’s nice to be into something, and for other people to know you’re into it, too :)

I once lost a Minecraft multiplayer world that me and a friend had put hundreds of hours each into, and that got me so upset and depressed it was ages before I could go back to the game. So I think I get how you’re feeling.

It’s a funny sense of loss isn’t it, a strange hollow in the stomach that is weirdly like mourning. Some people might be inclined to laugh and say you’re overreacting, and ask “How can you be so upset over something in a game, that isn’t even real?” - but what’s real is rather subjective, isn’t it.

Sure, the place wasn’t real, but the energy and creativity and care you put into it was real, and the time you spent there together with your spouse was real too.

Sucks that 5.0 had to do you dirty like this. I hope you enjoy your time away, and come back when you’re feeling it again.

For added theatrics, after they pay you can slowly fade the site back in over a few days too, as if websites need bill money the same way humans need food, and it is slowly getting better after “being starved”

The fade should be slow and subtle. At first the client thinks they are just imagining it, but then they start getting customer support calls about the site being faded, and their bosses are pointing it out too in meetings, and as it happens more and more the panic really begins to set in.

Finally they reach out to you in a desperation when there’s barely anything left of the site and ask you to urgently fix the problem, and you just shrug your shoulders sympathetically and explain it’s happening because they haven’t paid - but not like in a way that suggests you are doing it on purpose, but a way where it’s simply an unavoidable natural consequence, like if you didn’t pay your electricity bill your power would get cut and the site is slowly “dying” and fading away because of that.

They’d pay so fast.